The Way Of Wisdom
A Biblical 3rd way, when neither isolation from culture nor domination of culture through political means resonates with the Spirit of Christ within you. How you can be impactful without losing your faith or your values.
Short Summary
Jesus said we must be in the world and yet not of it. The Western Church has been in turmoil over just how to do that. Some far-right voices in the US claim that support for the Republican Party is needed to validate the authenticity of a believer. Others respond with equal conviction that it cannot be right to embrace personas antithetical to Christ in order to promote Godly causes. Believers can feel torn between two unacceptable choices: to embrace worldly political methods to gain influence at the expense of their ethics or to cloister into Christian huddles and engage culture only from a distance. The options seem to be of the world or fail to fully engaged in it. A “third way” is needed.
The Way of Wisdom is that Biblical 3rd Way. It is a strategy for relevant, transformational partnering that reflects the entire historical arc of human-divine collaboration in the earth. The kings and queens of the earth came to Solomon because of his heaven-imparted wisdom for their pressing problems and visibly encountered the presence of God’s Spirit across the palace courtyard. We can likewise impact cultures and their rulers by carrying the wisdom granted through access to the mind of Christ, if we carry it in love and humility. This is how we can be disciples and also make disciples while focusing on discipling the nations.
Revelation 21 paints a picture of the end goal of discipling the nations – each having a fully expressed and unique glory to present to the King of kings. In light of how far the nations are from that readiness, we – the Ekklesia – must reexamine and recontextualize our mission in ways that are both challenging and compelling. If that is what you want to do, please read, reflect on and share this paper.
The dynamics of making things on earth as they are in heaven are illustrated below:
